We were very pleased to see a Wales Tourism Alliance mention recently at Westminster.
Question to the Secretary of State for Wales: What recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on the potential financial impact of proposals to implement a visitor levy for Wales on the tourism sector? The Secretary of State for Wales (David T. C. Davies) The UK Government are investing in Wales and in the Welsh tourism industry, which has been evidenced most recently by the decision to allocate £500,000 to the Hay Festival—a project championed by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary. It is a pity that the Welsh Government are not taking the same view about the importance of the tourism industry and are introducing a tax that signals that Wales is closed for business. Kevin Foster I thank my right hon. Friend for his answer. It is no surprise that hitting tourists with a tax is likely to deter them from wanting to visit Wales, despite the natural beauty of places such as Snowdonia and the attractions of visiting locations such as Anglesey. Alongside highlighting the folly of this move from the Welsh Labour Government, will he ensure that anyone advocating for a tax on tourism anywhere else in the UK is reminded of the negative impact that it would have on our tourism sector? David T. C. Davies I can assure my hon. Friend that not only will I be reminding the Welsh Labour Government about the importance of supporting the tourism industry and the folly of introducing a tax, but my Conservative colleagues in the Senedd will also be making that point. I hope that the Welsh Labour Government will listen to them and also listen to the Wales Tourism Alliance, which has said that this tax will be a tax on jobs and a tax on an industry that employs one in 10 people in Wales.
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The Wales Tourism Alliance will be hosting a Symposium on the 25th January - Hope Church Conference Centre, Newtown, Powys. SY16 1JD
The Symposium will aim to commence finding sustainable solutions to the challenges facing our industry. This a great opportunity for us, as an industry, to gather together to discuss engagement with Government and how we influence policy that impacts on tourism in Wales. It is also a chance to discuss the delivery of our tourism offer. Hosted by Andrew Campbell, Ministerial Advisory Group Chair Places are limited, to register your interest please contact Naomi Williams 029 20630646 | 07999983934 camlas.cymru | camlas.wales It may sound a little dull, but it is important! The Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill was introduced in the Senedd in November 2023. The Bill will deliver most of the proposals for NDR reform set out last year in their consultation on NDR reform. These proposals included more frequent revaluations and measures required to deliver them, as well as wider improvements to enable the Welsh Government to better adapt the NDR system to meet the needs of Wales. In relation to NDR, the Bill will:
· increase the frequency of revaluations to three-yearly; · enable the revaluation cycle to be altered using regulations; · change the way ratepayers provide information to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), to ensure more frequent revaluations are sustainable in the long-term; · enable the Welsh Government to confer, vary or withdraw reliefs and exemptions, and to prescribe differential multipliers, using regulations; · strengthen the eligibility conditions for charitable relief for unoccupied properties; · remove a timing restriction on the awarding of discretionary relief by local authorities; · expand the definition of a new building for the purpose of the serving of completion notices by local authorities; and · enable the counteraction of advantages arising from artificial avoidance arrangements specified in regulations. They will provide further information about the implementation of these reforms during and following consideration of the Bill by the Senedd. There is almost definitely going to be an impact on larger properties as many will inevitably break the threshold at the high end. It follows the consultations on the Reform of non-domestic rating in Wales and A Fairer (Domestic) Council Tax Consultation. Rebecca Evans has already announced they want this all delivered from April 2025. The Committees of the Senedd consultation to inform their scrutiny of the Welsh Government’s 2024-25 Draft Budget proposals has closed. The Finance Committee looks at the Welsh Government’s budget from a strategic, overarching perspective, they also work with other Senedd Committees to ensure that proposals for specific departments, or cabinet portfolios are considered in detail. It will be interesting to see what the final budget contains for Tourism development. We await the final written budget and will update you when received.
Economy Minister sets out top priorities for a stronger Welsh economy ‘built by all of us’1/12/2023 Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething has set out the Welsh Government's key priorities that will shape the Economy of Wales for the remainder of this term of Government:
- A just transition and green prosperity: realising the enormous net zero economic opportunities and engaging with businesses and people to move towards a just transition - A platform for young people, fair work, skills and success: backing young people to achieve the ambitious futures in Wales. Prioritising their skills and creativity. - Stronger partnerships for stronger regions and our everyday economy: working with regions to agree a smaller set of priorities for growth, local jobs and major investment. New joint working to boost the case for UK investment in projects that crowd in investment and support fair, unionised jobs in areas including nuclear, offshore wind and tech. - Investing for growth: we will work in partnership to focus on our recognised strengths to boost investment and growth that prizes fair work and long-termism. Our new mission-based innovation strategy will target new investment in a post EU landscape, supporting commercialisation, research and development and entrepreneurship. Speaking at a Welsh Government press conference (30/11/23) the Minister argued that the ‘trickle down is bust’ and set out the case for positioning Wales alongside the wave of economies turning active industrial policy into new skills for long term prosperity. However, whilst no one can disagree with the broad general statements above as ever 'the Devil' is in the detail. Little mention of tourism given its importance and many in the industry will find the comments about setting priorities for growth of local jobs a hollow shout after the introduction of the 182 day threshold, which fundamentally threatens many micro and small businesses in our local, particularly rural counties. The mention of boosting 'Unionised jobs' is also interesting given that over 90% of our rural tourism businesses are micro and run by owner managers. Unions have in recent years been recording a large loss of members as a consequence of a world that is radically changing with the loss of large employers, the rise of the gig economy and as the world moves on-line to more flexible, life style working. Full announcement can be found here: https://www.gov.wales/economy-minister-sets-out-top-priorities-stronger-welsh-economy-built-all-us Tourism leaders have called on Welsh Government ministers to listen to the industry when developing policies that will impact businesses.
The call came from Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA) chairman Suzy Davies and Steve Hughson, chairman of both the Mid Wales Regional Tourism Forum and the Event Wales Industry Advisory Group, when speaking at the Mid Wales Tourism Conference. The sell-out conference, which attracted 120 delegates as well as exhibitors and sponsors, was held at the Metropole Hotel and Spa, Llandrindod Wells. The event was organised by MWT Cymru, an independent organisation representing around 600 tourism and hospitality businesses across Powys, Ceredigion and Southern Snowdonia. Mrs Davies said the WTA, which represents around 6,000 businesses in all sectors of tourism industry across Wales, was working with others to restore the industry’s relationship with the Welsh Government. There had been a breakdown in communications stemming from the introduction of the 182-day rule for self-catering accommodation in Wales. Self-catering accommodation that fails to be occupied for 182 days of the year now risks paying much higher council tax. The WTA has been talking to the Welsh Government about the impact of the 182-day rule, a tourism tax and statutory registration of tourism accommodation, but Mrs Davies said it had not been listening and businesses had lost faith in the consultation processes. “The current engagement structures don’t work for either the Welsh Government or the tourism industry,” she added. “The industry must be in the room when the Welsh Government shapes and designs policy and we need to be listened to.” She said there were signs that the Welsh Government was now beginning to listen to the industry’s collective voice, as a review of the 182-day rule had been promised and the tourism tax had been delayed until 2027. “There is now a much better understanding of what we have been all saying for the past 18 months,” she added. “We must never find ourselves in this position again which is why we have organised a symposium in Newtown in January and we hope the Welsh Government will attend.” Mr Hughson also stressed the importance of a united tourism industry working closely with the Welsh Government to influence and shape policies to ensure that they work well when introduced. “We can get the Welsh Government and Visit Wales to change, so long as we work in partnership in a polite, respectful and evidence-based way,” he said. “It has never been more important that we work together.” Regional tourism forums across Wales had an important role in making Welsh Government ministers in different policy areas aware of the cumulative effect of their policies on the tourism industry, he added. MWT Cymru chairman Rowland Rees-Evans thanked both Mrs Davies and Mr Hughson for their work on behalf of tourism businesses during a challenging time for the industry. He referred to four consultation papers issued by the Welsh Government. “They will undoubtedly have a major impact on the industry when the legislation is implemented,” he said. “We are already starting to see the effect of 182-day rule on self-catering holidays. As it stands at the moment, next year we will also have full business rates to contend with, among other changes. “MWT Cymru has always tried to look after its members, business partners and community groups with help and support from our great team who try to get ahead of the curve whenever new legislation, rules and regulations are being put in front of us.” Despites concerns about new legislation, he said there were positive signs that 2024 could be a better year for tourism businesses. Forward bookings were healthier than the same time last year and there was feeling that people, who did not take a holiday in Mid Wales this year due to the cost of living crisis, would return in 2024. Picture caption: Mid Wales Regional Tourism Forum Steve Hughson addresses the conference. MWT Cymru chairman Rowland Rees-Evans speaking at the conference. Wales Tourism Alliance chairman Suzy Davies being interviewed by Phil Blizzard for a conference podcast. Ends For more information, please contact Val Hawkins, MWT Cymru chief executive, on Tel: 01654 702653 or Duncan Foulkes, publicity adviser, on Tel: 01686 650818. Headlines: The Chancellor has just sat down from delivering his Autumn Statement. The following are some key headlines from his statement relevant to our sector.
You can access the Treasury's 'Green Book' and associated Autumn Statement documents such as policy costings via https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-2023 Wales Climate Week encourages a national conversation on climate change and provides an opportunity for a wide range of stakeholders to network and engage in important discussions on how Wales can play its part in tackling climate change. The theme for this year’s Wales Climate Week was how do we tackle the most important questions facing businesses, communities and households today: – How can we tackle climate change in a fair way?
In Wales, the Welsh Government has committed to ensuring a just transition to a greener, more sustainable economy that isn’t reliant on fossil fuels. This means an approach driven by the guiding principle of leaving no-one behind. This year’s event will coincided with a Welsh Government consultation on a new Just Transition Framework which begin this month. A 5-day virtual conference was held between 4th-8th December examining the the impacts of climate change. To aim was to discuss and explore how Wales can tackle climate change in a fair way that leaves no-one behind. We have received an apology from Booking.com for forwarding to members, following query as to the reason for late payments:
‘As part of our investment to ensure our technology continues to deliver ever higher levels of online safety and security for our business partners, their guests and our systems, we needed to carry out essential improvements, including system upgrades to our financial and payment platforms. Despite having planned carefully and notified our partners in advance that we would be carrying out this work, a number of unforeseen problems occurred. This meant that payments to some of our partners were disrupted. We know that for some of the partners who were affected, this had an impact on their businesses, and on their professional and personal lives. For this, we are deeply sorry. The delays in receiving payment that some of our partners experienced were longer than we anticipated. This is not the level of service we would ever want to deliver to our partners. We know that we have fallen short of the experience partners expect from us and we recognize that we have work to do to win back their trust. We fully understand that an apology doesn’t change the impact we have had on their business. We are providing compensation to those partners whose payment was delayed by 21 days or more after the pre-announced temporary suspension of payments related to our financial systems upgrade. The exact amount of compensation is determined by the amount owed and the length of delay experienced. This compensation will be in the form of a one-time cash payment, which will be deposited directly into the partner’s bank account by the end of November. The vast majority of payouts have resumed and are being processed as per usual, since ensuring our partners are paid on time is a top priority for us. We have heard the feedback from our partners and are learning from it so we can do better in the future. Our CEO has given his personal commitment to partners to ensure we deliver better levels of service in the future’. If you believe you are eligible for compensation then we suggest you contact Booking.com directly and immediately. Consultation description: In 2018 the Welsh Government consulted on banning the use of combustible materials in and on the external walls of specific types of high-rise buildings. Following the consultation, the Building Regulations 2010 (“Building Regulations”) were amended to restrict the use of combustible materials in and on external walls and specified attachments to a list of materials essential for construction but without an available non-combustible alternative. They are now proposing to:
Full documentation can be found here: Amendments to Part B (Fire Safety) of the Building Regulations and associated statutory guidance documents, including a call for evidence. (gov.wales) If the WTA receives representation we will submit a response. Closes 09/01/2024 |